Our First Visit To Destin!

Marc and I are so blessed in that we were able to get away for a few days the second week of October to a place we have never been!! One of our best friend couples, Johnathan and Brooke Akin, had the same fall break from Lipscomb and teaching as I did so we took advantage of it!! We haven't been on a vacation with them since our cruise in May 2005 so we have been looking forward to another trip with them for a long time now. Marc used that week as one of his few weeks off he has throughout the year and we hit the road to Destin. We rented a Grand Marquis (thank you!) which we nicknamed Myrtle/Marquita/Destiny and cruised down I-65, leaving Nashville around 12:30 in the morning. Oh, we loved our big 'ole family car the mostest. We were all nauseous together the entire trip!! Even Marc, and he's the one who makes fun of the rest of us for always being sick and nauseous. What a wonderful, refreshing time we had!! We basically, slept-in, lounged around on the beach, came in for long beach lunches consisting of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and Totino's pizza bites, and watched random t.v. specials, such as "The Growing-Up Years on Full House" and the "Story of the Olsen Twins", got ready for our big nights out on the town, went out and ate so much our bellies hurt, and came back to our condo to get into comfy clothes and play games on our balcony and chill until midnight. Every day was just like that and we loved every second of it!! We also made time to hit the outlet stores where the boys racked up on some new fall clothes, and we even cheated and went to Old Navy to check out their sale. :) Of course, we took lots of fun pictures and many of them are below just to make you really jealous that you weren't lying on the beach in October!!! Hee hee!! I'm so mean!! In all seriousness, this was a break all 4 of us very much needed and we are all so thankful that we were able to work it out to go. Now it's back to the real world!!

Gettin' in Marquita about to head out for our big night out!! Look how cool the boys look! :)

LOVED our first night of dinner at the Back Porch! I even fought for us a table right on the back porch with a front-seat view of the ocean!!

Dinner at "Grazie" was very interesting.... The bread was yummy but we couldn't even understand one word our waiter was saying because he was mumbling all his words together. We kept hearing we thought cuss words coming out of his mouth when he was telling us about the food?!?!? We were the most confused!

Some pics of our beautiful resort, Pelican Beach... We rented it from a private owner and really lucked out. The views were absolutely gorgeous!! And, great location!!

At Destin Commons... the coolest, cutest outside shopping area

Back to the view from our balcony... Johnathan came up with a name for the shape of this pool, but I can't say it on here... Hee hee!

To the left, we had a view of The Big Kahuna Park and the main "strip"...

Marc putting up our new $11 umbrella!! Everyone else on the beach was paying $20 a day to rent chairs & an umbrella, but we bought an umbrella and chair for $16 total to use for the whole week!! Find the smartest people at the beach.... FOUND US!!

I love this picture of our resort against the beautiful sky!!

Visiting the Village of Baytowne Wharf... the cutest little area that is a hidden secret!

Just bein' silly.... There were these big boxes of pumpkins for sale and Johnathan thought it would be hilarious to treat one of them as our baby! Thank you. Would some pregnant belly really just be that small and perfectly round?

Eating at Fudpucker's... Loved the chicken nachos!!

Cruisin' to the "Destin '07" CD Brooke & Johnathan made especially for our trip... The boys felt the need to choreograph some dance moves

This was the night that for some reason Brooke, Johnathan, and I thought that Marc looked "especially GQ-like." Thank you. He was sportin' his new shirt from the J Crew outlet and had some facial hair goin' on... Oh, he was the cutest husband ever!!

Our last night.... Putt-putting at the Track

Our resort at night...

Random pic of the boys in their serious paddle ball tournament.

Love this picture Brooke took of the little set up in front of us on the beach one day!! So peaceful...